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5 Worst Buys in Coin Collecting 2026 according to TheCoinGeek
Desert Moon
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And his number #1 I wholeheartedly agree with.
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quote on #1 - ‘I wouldn't recommend you do this with your own money’.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ighzn0nRPc
My online coin store - https://desertmoonnm.com/
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Thanks for posting!
I agree with your first 3 that it is a little unfair to ANACS, Feepay w/o context, and grading. Your point 4 analogy does not hold water. Buying coins to let them sit for future profit is independent of gambling on a mystery box. Not even close to the same for comparison.
Like everything those are just general guidelines, especially for new collectors who want to slab things they find in their pocket.
I find ANACS useful for a cheap way to authenticate a commonly counterfeited coin found in circulation and they have done a few dozen for me that all ended up selling -- all Lincoln cents like 22 no D strong reverse F15 details, 1909-SVDB F12 and 1914-D VG8, that sort of thing that really does not merit a PCGS fee. edit: and no nothing recent, those were all found like 4-5 decades ago and just saved in 2x2s until I retired a few years ago.
I find EBay useful for flipping overpriced current Mint stuff, but I end up with more $$ by just sending more valuable stuff to GC that is a replaced duplicate. Dealers with EBay stores have much lower fees and obviously are in a totally different circumstance and may even make their living doing that, which is great.
Gambling is not for me -- I can't even get 2 numbers on a 6 number lottery ticket.
No problem with PCGS, I just paid them for a reholder on a coin that I really like in a crappy holder, but then again it is a 1917 DDO MS64RB cent so deserves a decent holder for about $68 plus the $12 for the FedEx letter that got it there (so I guess I am a bit of gambler, no insurance).
Weak.
It's not a lot different from real estate, which always goes up in price until it doesn't.
I bought a house in AZ for $110k from someone who paid $350k for it. I sold it for $250k, to someone who recently sold it for $500k. What will the new owner eventually sell it for? Your guess is as good as mine.
Selling on eBay can be great, the fees are quite reasonable given the huge audience, especially if you sell regularly and have a store.
ANACS is not off-brand, quite harsh.
Michael Kittle Rare Coins --- 1908-S Indian Head Cent Grading Set --- No. 1 1909 Mint Set --- Kittlecoins on Facebook --- Long Beach Table 700
Life is a gamble, the stock market is a gamble, getting in your car is a gamble every day, but a mystery box is 99% no chance of anything but losing. With life and the stock market and driving, one can be careful and not get taken mostly. With a Vault Box, or a Witter Brik (sic), 99% guarantee of getting hosed. Not the same thing IMO. But I know you will argue your point to the bitter end so I will stop here……………
Edited to add, and real estate as noted above. But long term, your chances in real estate, the stock market, life (at least for many of us), are all up up up, with Mystery Box, instant big loss 99% of the time. Different all the way.
I thought he was just going to give the worst investments for 2026. Some of those are bad regardless of the year. I expected him to mention some of the overpriced offerings from the US Mint for semiquincentennial coins. There will be winners and losers.
So 90%? 95%? In either case the overwhelming majority get hosed for the benefit of a few lucky gamblers............ Coingeek was spot on for that one.
My take-away from the CoinGeek video is that he is offering five pieces of general advice based on his numismatic experience. And as general advice, he acknowledges there are exceptions. For those who have not watched the video, here are the five items (as I understood them):
Here’s my take. I agree with 4 out of 5.
Sometimes, it’s better to be LUCKY than good. 🍀 🍺👍
My Full Walker Registry Set (1916-1947):
https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/16292/
I was hoping for something more profound when I saw the title of the thread. My response: oh golly, really!
For a list of the five worst things you can spend your money on as a coin collector (he said that in the first 10 seconds), how does "eBay fees" even come up? People buying coins through eBay don't pay eBay any fees for doing so.
See, J-roc, this is where I’d respectfully opine that you’ have a bit of a pro- eBay bias that stems from your own perspective, which is normal and to be expected. That said, I think your reverse generalization doesn’t add up for many others. For one, myself, but I think his greater point was that people who don’t value their time or have unlimited time to burn are always going to think the grass is greenest where it’s the lowest up front cost.
For me, ANY selling venue I use is going to be around within a few points of 10%, so sometimes it’s negligible and other times I’m better off wholesaling. After taking my time and effort in descriptions, photos, hassles with returns etc- that 2% is well worth the extra cost to have someone else do all of that while I wait for a check..:
Same principle in using a dealer vs auction, there are pros and cons with everything but any sweeping generalization is going to raise some rabble from the crowd who has a different business model or different circumstances, but I think you can (or should) agree that everyone should attach some value to their time.
Coin roll hunting comes to mind- if you actually enjoy it, and don’t have other tasks that you have to back burner to do so, you will value your time much differently than someone who sees it as a chore. Not everyone would be better off just working a typical wage if their ultimate goal is capital… in contrast to the retiree who likes to keep his eyes sharp and spends time doing it with their kin, where the journey is half of the perceived value, not just the destination. It’s the same general argument as the coins/investments topic, so since we’re in agreement, I’ll excuse myself because i don’t have the wherewithal to respond to counterpoints tonight.
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As the senior ANACS rep, I obviously disagree with the assessment in the video. A few things:
@cmerlo1 Pardon my ignorance, but who is "we"? Thank you.
"She comes out of the sun in a silk dress,
running like a water color in the rain...."
Thanks for the callout- I updated the post. I'm the senior rep for ANACS.
The markets can be brutal especially now. I know a dealer who was doing $30k a month on ebay in metals and classic numismatics. Now he says it's dead. And he does a lot of submissions to Anacs and gets over Greysheet on a lot of the Anacs certified coins.
He said you're usually better off wholesaling to a dealer than selling it yourself on eBay. Well, maybe for some things. But then again, he's a dealer with a shop and he doesn't see any benefit himself when people bypass him and sell on eBay, so there's that. Why would he advocate for a method of selling that leaves himself out of the picture?
I sell on eBay and buy most of what I sell from guys with shops like him. I make a perfectly acceptable (to me, anyway) profit and assume he probably does, too. The people who sold him the coins he sold me (that I sold for a profit) could have cut out the middlemen, sold the coins themselves and kept all the profit. Yes, it takes more time than just dropping a box of coins off at the local shop and some people won't want to spend it on doing the work and that's okay, too.
And now, the math- there's that "What's your time worth?" question, which different people will have different answers to. As for me, I typically list stuff in the evenings when I'm just hanging out at home and not doing anything else. I do value that time, but I'm pretty sure if I was to look, I wouldn't be able to find anyone who'd pay me to watch hockey on tv so whatever amount I make listing stuff on eBay while I'm doing that is a bonus.
As always, YMMV.
Shops buy at advantageous prices but have limited ability to retail most of what they buy. If the rest of your business model is working you don't even have time to sell on eBay.
I've been collecting now for over 20 years and have found that __selling_ on ebay is a part of being a coin collector. For instance when replacing a certain coin in my collection I sometimes like to sell the duplicate. Does that make sense?
I understand your position. Not everybody thinks you need to sell to be a collector, though...
Who has never sold a single coin from their collection?
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/comment/8269666#Comment_8269666
"I haven't sold any of my coins, although I've thought about it a number of times."
"I've been collecting steadily since 1963 without ever selling a coin from my collection."
"I have never sold a coin to someone else."
"I have never sold any coins, although I thought about it sometimes."
"I don't sell nothin"
"i know 3 collectors who have never traded or sold a single coin, but 1 had some stolen"
"From my collection, I have gifted coins (even re-gifted a few), donated coins, distributed/spent coins, and traded coins but I have not sold any yet."
"Never sold a single coin !"
"not one!"
"Never have, too much inertia to get started on eBay + not wanting to get ripped off at a B&M or Show ..."
"Never."
"Shops buy at advantageous prices but have limited ability to retail most of what they buy. If the rest of your business model is working you don't even have time to sell on eBay.
What I meant was the above is true if you're selling large volumes of great classic coins you aren't even going to get in a lot of other stuff and much of it is much more easily wholesaled. Don't forget too that if you know the top wholesalers for all the stuff that comes in you aren't going to be selling coal tokens for $2 a pound. There are strong buyers for almost everything.
That's in incredible thread. I can't imagine never selling a coin. I guess you can trade and give away what you don't want any longer, if you have a good network of other collectors.
Rare-Change.com - Low listing fee
YES
Is Paying for grading a waste of money? It's risky but for a lot of people its the heart of the matter
Would you say, buying an ANACs coin in MS67 and cracking it out or submitting for a crossover grade at PCGS is worth the money? Sure the premium for a PCGS MS67 might not cover the cost. I think of ANACS as the best place to test the water and then later go for a crossover to PCGS. As the guy from ANACS said, they do cross over well, sometimes to a higher grade. In other words, ANACS grading might be more respectable than you think.
I've seen a few of Coin Geeks videos, and to be honest, he is not trying to disrespect collectors, but he does sort of kill collector enthusiasm you had about a particular coin. I guess coin dealers see disappointed sellers all the time
I too agree. ANACS should be considered to be as accurate as NGC or PCGS. ANACS is more affordable, and therefore valuable, for getting something graded, especially for varieties and errors. I think sometimes that ANACS is unfairly dissed and gets a lower premium. But the coin not the holder. I don't trust IGC, unless the coin is from someone you trust like Daniel Carr. In some cases the holder is just to have a holder,
Buying coins to let them sit for future profit sounds logical, but seldom is. Collecting is not a good way to invest. Its a hobby. If you don't enjoy it and want to get rid of them, there are places you can go to do that. Don't expect to break even.
Final word, Sorry to resurrect an older thread, but I was going through my old drafts and thought I'd finally finish my rant. I had another one on the "coin collectors are getting old, who are we going to sell our coins to?" thread that sort of dovetails with this thread. For many people like myself, coin collecting has not been a waste of time, though you could say, it hasn't really been profitable monetarily.
ANACS has been a great option for lower valued coins when they have had a ten coin $120 grading special including return shipping especially when able to hand submit coins at a show. They provide a very useful service for a large segment of the coin industry.
eBay at least for me has been a good way to sell raw mostly detailed coins ie. junk. I’ve sold a handful of $300-500 straight graded PCGS coins and my results have been very lackluster. After taking into consideration fee structures, my mediocre photography skills, my low visibility on eBay, and the time spent GC is a much better option for these type of coins.
"Buy the coin not the holder" is one useful practice as well as avoiding fads. Most buyers are very conservative when it comes to any risk.
Buying coins for future profit is part of RCI - Rare Coin Investment. Mystery boxes a gamble imo. If you buy PCGS, CACG coins with super luster and hardly any tarnish that’s smart investment. We have a large inventory of them. I sat on slabbed silver bullion coins for 1.5 yr then when silver exploded huge profit many got more than double double. I look for coins that are winners - PQ w super luster. Generally MS64 (investment grade) or higher.
Yes ebay has opex fees and shipping. Just mark up your material accordingly (for decent profit). Get on top of fees too so proper biz mgt.
Witter Brick CACG coins can yield even higher retail money. In Calc my muf on them I did a table of wb sellers - their ask vs CDN bid.
Sorry. I could not get all the way through the video. I got halfway through. This 7 minutes was more entertaining
https://youtu.be/ofu-CSJ0UN8?is=DtDjhdC3cyCC__lV
Practice makes perfect & nobody is perfect. So, practice being nobody and be perfect !
eBay is a good place to buy and sell grandpas ole stinky socks. Coins, not so much. THKS!
The whole worlds off its rocker, buy Gold™.
BOOMIN!™
Wooooha! Did someone just say it's officially "TACO™" Tuesday????
Retiring at 55, what day is today?
HA and SB going to 22% was the final straw for me. One great advantage of coin collecting as a hobby is that you still have the value of the coins. GC and eBay I hope will gain market share and hold the line on this lunacy.
Here we go again. Oy!
It makes no difference what the buyers premium is if you’re a smart buyer. Your final bid is a function of your bid and the buyers premium. If an auction has a 100% buyers premium and you value a coin at $1000 your final bid would be $500 ($500 bid and $500 buyers premium).
Savvy sellers when they negotiate with an auction house get a portion of the buyers premium back to them.
Every econ course teaches that for any added fee - tax, tariff, auction charge - the extra amount is split between buyer and seller. The percentage can change somewhat, depending on who has more choices, but overall the higher these fees, the worse for collectors.
If you "hold the line" and don't bid over above some book value or something, well then you won't get any coins, because every price you see now is 11% (22%/2) higher than it would be without the fees.
That, plus everyone sells eventually, either for need of money, or losing interest, or dying. Or your heirs do, whatever.
So "Oy" back at you.
How many years did it take to sell that much? So what are the quality of the coins? On the coins I sell, my margins are 10-15%, bc you have to pay up for pq and you really can't then mark them up to cover feepay fees and still make 10-15%. So it depends on what you sell and what your mark up can be.......... Feepay would never work for me and alot of other numismatic vendors.
Facts matter.
Maybe some reasonable advise is to learn to grade coins. Attend coin shows and develop an appreciation for what a quality coin should look like in hand instead of relying solely on an image that may or may not capture the essence of the coin. Determine how the coin under consideration compares to other similar situated coins. Not all coins at the same grade are equal. Opinions can and often do change over time… even among TPG companies and collectors.
Keep in mind that it was ANACS that was first to really explore and accept varieties for grading. Why should I dismiss or just flat out ignore a coin that has an appropriate attribution that just might not surface often? Does it not make more sense to learn and develop numismatic skills yourself so you can decide and basically take control over whats and whys associated with the coins you choose to buy?
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
The BST is free and there is no dealer middleman and no sales tax. If your coin doesn't sell, you haven't lost anything.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire